Today, under the Prime Minister’s Education Assistance Trust, 164,009 underprivileged and meritorious students have been distributed stipends, tuition fees, admission fees and medical grants. Of the total number, 1.5 lakh students have receivedtheir stipends through bKash, the country’s largest mobile financial serviceprovider.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the stipend disbursement program of the academic year 2020-2021 via video conference today. Dr. DipuMoni,Minister of Education;Mohibul Hasan Chowdhury,Deputy Minister of Education;Md. Mahbub Hossain, Secretary of Secondary and Higher Secondary Divisionand other senior officials of the Prime Minister’s Office and the Education Ministry were present at the event.Kamal Quadir,CEO of bKash along with other senior officials of bKash were also present.
A total amount of stipend worth 87 crore 52 lakh 50 thousand and 400 Taka has been provided under this program. Last year, under the same program, 200 thousand students received stipends with transparency, accuracy and security through bKash. As a result, bKash has once again been chosen for the task.
At the event, the Prime Minister quoted Bangabandhu and said, “There can be no better investment than investing in education to build a healthy society.” Therefore, the Prime Minister explainsthat Bangabandhu considered spending on education as an investment.
Education Minister DipuMoni thanked bKash and the MFS platforms that have decided to bear the cost of CashOut charge for this disbursement. The Deputy Minister of Education Mohibul Hasan Chowdhury has said that the mobile financial service providers of Bangladesh have set an example in the whole world. It is due to the mobile financial services that there is a balanced development through financial inclusion.
However, students will be able to Cash Out the stipend received in their bKash account without any additional cost. Many beneficiaries from different districts were also present at the event through video conference and they wholeheartedly thanked the Prime Minister.
In addition to these, bKash has been distributing the Prime Minister’s Education Assistance Trust funds successfully to 4 million secondary and Higher Secondary level students successfully through G2P system.